Canadian on Working European Vacation Finds Online Volunteering with Canadian Charity by Chance

Download Interview - Becky Heaman In the fall of 2006, Becky Heaman of Calgary (Canada) had sold her house, quit her job and set out on a working European vacation of her lifetime. After establishing Dublin, Ireland as her home base, Heaman sought out a volunteer opportunity to help her get connected with her new surroundings. In her quest to find a local volunteer opportunity, she did a search on a Volunteer Ireland Web site. To her surprise, the search popped up an online volunteer opportunity (something she had not done before) with a Canadian charitable organization, Macdonald Youth Services (MYS), based in Winnipeg. "I am over here in Dublin, Ireland. I was trying to find a way to get connected and volunteer here, because that is something I had done at home in Calgary, and in the search I found ... Volunteer Dublin, Volunteer Ireland and they (the Canadian charity) were listed as one of the opportunities," stated Heaman. "And because it was online, it didn't matter that I was over here in Ireland and it was kind of interesting for me to be able to find a way to still stay connected to Canada," added Heaman. "Becky demonstrated the power of Internet technology and laptop computing,"commented MYS Online Volunteer Program Developer Randy Tyler. "Selfless in sharing her precious vacation time with MYS, Becky would take her laptop on the road with her to work on a volunteer project and aim to connect with me via an Internet cafe from any place in Europe her travel took her," continued Tyler. To learn about Becky's online volunteer involvement with Macdonald Youth Services as she toured from Ireland to Russia to Iceland, MYS South Dakota-based online volunteer audio producer John Small interviewed Becky at two time periods. To listen to or download the approximate nine minute Skype to phone interview (mp3: 8 MB), please see the links above, which is accessed from: http://www.mys.ca/aov Macdonald Youth Services (MYS), a 77 year-old trusted and respected registered charitable healing and support agency based in Winnipeg, Canada, provides a variety of innovative and leading programming for thousands of Manitoba’s young people on a yearly basis. MYS has been successfully utilizing highly-skilled online volunteers from around the globe to enhance their programs and services since 1998. For further information: Randy Tyler Online Volunteer Program Developer/Webmaster Macdonald Youth Services Winnipeg, Canada Volunteer Online with a Leader E-Mail Randy Tyler PGP Key T: 1-204-949-4292